MOSCOW,
Aug 12 (Reuters) - President Vladimir Putin said on Monday that
Ukraine's biggest attack on Russian territory since the start of the war
was aimed at improving Kyiv's negotiating position ahead of possible
peace talks and at slowing the advance of Russian forces.
Ukrainian
forces rammed through the Russian border last Tuesday and swept across
some western parts of Russia's Kursk region, a surprise attack that laid
bare the weakness of Russian border defences in the area.
Putin,
in his most detailed public remarks on the incursion to date, said
Ukraine "with the help of its Western masters" was trying to improve its
position ahead of possible talks.
He questioned what negotiations there could be with an enemy he accused of firing indiscriminately at Russian civilians and nuclear facilities.
"The
main task, of course, is for the defence ministry to squeeze out, to
knock out the enemy from our territories," Putin said, adding that
Russian forces were accelerating their advance along the rest of the
1,000-km (620-mile) main front.
"The enemy will certainly receive a worthy response," he said.
He also said he expected further Ukrainian attempts to destabilise Russia's western border.
Ukrainian
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said the war was now coming back to
Russia. He said that Ukraine's cross-border assault was a matter of
security for Ukraine and that Kyiv had captured areas from where Russia
launched strikes.
His
top commander, Oleksandr Syrskyi, said Ukraine controlled 1,000 sq km
(386 sq miles) of Russian territory, far larger than the figures given
by Russian officials.
The
acting governor of Kursk, Alexei Smirnov, said Ukraine controlled 28
settlements in the region, and the incursion was about 12 km deep and 40
km wide. Putin told Smirnov that the military would report on such
things and advised him to focus on updating on the socio-economic
situation.
In
Kursk region alone, 121,000 people had already left or been evacuated
and another 59,000 were in the process of being evacuated. In Russia's
Belgorod region, which borders Kursk, thousands of civilians were also
evacuated.
Ukrainian
forces in Kursk were trying to encircle Sudzha, where Russian natural
gas flows into Ukraine, while major battles were under way near
Korenevo, about 22 km (14 miles) from the border, and Martynovka.
One
Russian source with knowledge of official thinking said that by
attacking Russia, Ukraine was emboldening Russian hardliners who argue
that any ceasefire talks were a waste of time and that Russia should
push much further into Ukraine.
CRUCIAL JUNCTURE
Russian
officials say Ukraine is trying to show its Western backers that it can
still muster major military operations just as pressure mounts on both
Kyiv and Moscow to agree to talk about halting the war.